


Darkness

by slashluvr2998



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Darkness, Dragons, Short, Sunsets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8607190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashluvr2998/pseuds/slashluvr2998
Summary: Loki runs into a dragon that also happens to be human.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers/Thor or Once upon a time.

"You've been watching me." The previously majestic winged creature was now in a human looking female form and settled down beside him on the large rock that he was sitting on. There was a fabulous view of the forest from his perch and at the center had been the dragon.

"I miss dragons, the land where I come from they're extinct. They were over-hunted by the warriors of our land centuries ago." It was a relief that even though he was in Midgard he was in a land of magic with multiple origins, so he could speak of where he was from without anyone being able to figure out who he was.

"So nostalgia?" Loki inclined his head but didn't speak further or look at the dark haired woman beside him.

"You know most of the people from the land of untold stories live in town?" She spoke but there wasn't any accusation in her voice, it sounded like she was giving him an opening if he wanted to speak, he didn't.

"I know why me and my mother chose to live here, but why do you?" He sighed, and considered just telling her to go away. But he had been the one watching her even though he hadn't known. Honestly, he missed dragons dreadfully. Even though she wasn't a real dragon he liked seeing her in her dragon form so he was less brisk than he otherwise might have been.

"The trees are lovely," he said evasively. In all honesty, it was because they were on Midgard, the planet he tried to take over. He had learned enough by illusioning himself and going about in town for small segments to know that this land was in Midgard, but at the same time separate from it. With his true face it was possible they would remember him and then if SHIELD or Asgard got wind of it, they would once again know that he had lived when most thought him dead. He was sure that the third time would be any better than the first two.

"They are, but living in a tent when you could live in town, with the others is strange. Especially since you don't give me the outdoorsy vibe," Loki finally turned to look at the woman beside him and raised an eyebrow at her less than subtle prying. She smiled at him in a friendly manner.

"Sorry it's just been awhile since I've been human," she said and started to swing her legs over the edge.

"I had no idea you were," Loki whispered in annoyance admitting it aloud. If he had he wouldn't have watched her like this, at least not nearly so openly. She didn't answer him and she stopped speaking for so long he thought maybe she had gone away to leave him be. When his eyes flickered in her direction he found her still there, but thankfully she was at least silent now. She didn't appear to be looking at him either but around at the trees of the forest.

"It looks different this way." Loki had nothing to say to that but with the loss of her chipper and prying attitude he was much less annoyed with her company. The two sat in silence for awhile and the sun started to set in sky, releasing red and oranges

"Are you a dragon that can become a human? Or a human that can be a dragon?" The questions suddenly slipped out before he could stop it, but it had been buzzing around in the back of his mind incessantly like a bunch of bees. He turned slightly so that he could see her face as she answered, she looked rather pensive.

"That's the question isn't it? I was hatched from an egg but I was human. I lived in the outside world all my life up until a year ago and then I became a dragon for the first time. For the first month, my mom taught me how to be a dragon. How to jump back and forth between shapes but that is something about being a dragon that is so freeing so I stopped switching back. Maybe because the darkness isn't so powerful in that form." He raised his eyebrows in confusion but she didn't answer. In fact. she looked away he had a feeling that she hadn't meant to say the last bit aloud. After a moment when it became clear she wasn't going to elaborate, he dropped it. He was slightly curious but not enough to force or weasel the information out. He turned again towards the sunset leaving the stranger in his peripheral vision.

Even though he spent the last few months in this forest. He only ever watched the sunset when he watched the dragon, who happened to also be a mortal woman. Normally he spent his time getting used to and honing the magic of the land. There was magic in the air, more than most realms which made it much easier to do more complicated bits of magic than it was in realms that weren't laced with it. Lands where it all had to come from inside. That and hunting, foraging and upkeeping his abode. It brought him back to his boyhood days of learning to hunt. He hadn't liked it much back then and honestly it was rather tedious now but he wanted to spend as little time around the others as he could, lest he slip up and they recognize him.

Loki's attention was drawn when he saw movement. He turned his head slightly and saw the woman getting up off the rock. She briefly turned to look at him before she was swallowed by purple magic. A moment later she was back to her previous glory and flew off. Loki stayed and finished watching the sunset.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Thor/Avengers or Once Upon a Time.**

**Sorry, it took me so long to update this.**

* * *

He was hunting when he spotted her again. This time in dragon form when she scared off his dinner. Briefly, he considered changing his form and just going into town to eat but then dismissed it. He was having enough trouble without involving any of them in it.

"I hope you're happy," he snarked, "you made me lose my food," he said putting down his bow and arrow. Not usually his weapon of choice but his options were limited here. The purple smoke was back and a moment later the same lady as before was standing in front of him. She opened her hand to reveal a chocolate bar in her hand. Loki couldn't help it, he smiled. He had always liked sweets but going into town was a luxury he hardly allowed himself.

"I can get you some meat to go with it," she added sounded slightly apologetic. He strode to her, picked up the bar and after a reassuring nod from the woman he stripped the bar of its plastic packaging and started to ingest it. It was nothing like the decadent desserts he was used to, but it was a lot better than squirrel or deer.

"It looks like you haven't had a good meal in a long time. Neither have I. I'm going to fix that," she turned back into a dragon. Opened her long black wings and flew away from him. He raised an eyebrow at her abrupt disappearance but put it out of his mind as he restrung his arrow and caught site of some fresh deer tracks.

He had been tracking for a good 20 minutes when, yet again, the forest went quiet. He knew the animals were scattering because of the giant dragon setting down in a clearing near him. The dragon turned into the woman again. This time she was holding paper bags in her hands and a blanket in another. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Are you telling me where you're from doesn't have picnics?" It did but he was unfamiliar with the paper bags. There was a smell coming from them, a good but very unfamiliar smell. The woman laid the bright red blanket on the ground and sat down on the far end of it.

"Look I'm hungry, and I messed up your hunt so you're hungry. This is a simple way for both of us...okay?" Loki nodded but mostly because the food was making him salivate. Food he didn't have to cook or kill and this way didn't involve figuring out who to pretend to be while he was eating. He could come up with a whole new person, but knowing the town they would sooner or later try to help him or try to figure out his story. It was best if he just stayed away.

_Or he could show them who he was and make them bend to his will._

Yes, because the last three times he had tried had worked out so well, he thought dryly. On Asgard, he failed, then fell. On Midgard, he failed then went home where he killed Odin and succeeded but only for a short time before he failed again. Even if they wouldn't' kill him themselves, if they let it slip to Midgard they would have no trouble doing it for them or giving him back to Asgard. He was sure Thor would surely kill him as he had sworn to do in the event he had betrayed him, which he had. So as much as this simple life bothered him, it was better than any alternative on the outside of this little magic realm: ie imprisonment for the rest of his long years or death. Since he had killed Odin, he doubted the accommodations would be as plentiful the second time around, even if Thor didn't kill him.

He sat down on the other end of the red blanket and waited as the lady he still didn't know the name of, starting pulling thin plates made of paper out of the bags. She put one in front of him than one in front of herself. Then she pulled out several of white containers and put them around the blanket, opening them as she did so and naming the foreign foods.

"Pasta, meatloaf, fried chicken, turkey, banana nut bread and rolls. I told Granny to give me a bit of everything, since I wasn't sure what you like or if you've had much earth food." She took a bit of each food onto her plate and after a moment Loki followed suit. "She seemed surprised to see me," she added though this time it seemed more to herself to him. Loki bit into what was called fried chicken and while it filled with a tremendous amount of grease he felt his hunger kick in. He had an enormous appetite but he only got to fully gorge himself when he managed to track down deer. Normally, he just ignored the slight hunger that was his constant companion. After all, he gotten used to the feeling in the void and everything had been much worse there. He tried to pace himself but he ate rather quickly and soon all of the food was gone. She looked impressed.

"I've never seen even teenaged boys eat so much in one sitting," she said getting up into a crouch from the red blanket. She started putting all the objects back away in the bags they had come in. "You really are hungry aren't you?" He didn't know how to answer that so he straightened up himself to stand at his full height. He sighed, and decided to be cordial, something he rarely did anymore.

"Thank you for the meal, lady?" he paused as he realized he had no clue what the mortals name was and this was the end of the second time that he had met her.

"Just call me Lily. I wouldn't exactly call myself a lady," she said as she finished putting the food away and standing up as well. "And it's no problem. It's actually better when I eat in human form because I need less food. Less deer and the like eaten. I just prefer being a dragon." He remembered their last meeting and something about the darkness and had a feeling that had something to do with it but he didn't bring it up. Instead, he simply gave her a cordial nod and walked away feeling almost uncomfortably full for the first time in a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything.
> 
> This is the last chapter

 

The next time he saw her he was finished hunting had a deer carcass stung across his shoulders and was making his way back to his abode. She was human and looked distracted and like she didn't seem to realize he was there. He was going to let her remain that way but then she turned to him and he knew any chance for that was over.

"My mom and I had a fight," she said like the fact there they had shared two short conversations meant that they were somehow friends. He hadn't even told her his name, nor had she asked. She had given him food but she had also scared his away. She turned this way and that looking very agitated. Loki still didn't see what any of this had to do with him so he made to turn away. "It's this darkness inside of me, it ruins everything." Despite himself ,he turned back at that. She hardly seemed to notice she just kept talking. "This is their fault they did this me, why would they do this to me," the last of the line was said with a crack voice that seemed very close to crying. That quickly made him all for running away again only she seemed to clamp down on the crying side and now just anger burned in her eyes. "Why it is okay for them to do this to me?" This question did seem to be directed at him and for some reason he couldn't seem to turn away.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he answered honestly. She seemed to collapse in on herself and she suddenly sat on the ground.

"She said she'd help, but she's so busy with the Evil Queen and the others from the land of untold stories. She has my light, what should have been my light. I ruin everything around me." He had to excuse himself but he still couldn't seem to move, couldn't seem to look away. She looked up at from her hunched position on the ground.

"You have darkness in you too don't you," he froze stiff at her question that wasn't really a question so much as a statement. He wanted to deny or change the subject or just leave but he seemed to be frozen on the spot. She looked up at him with such fervor in her eyes that it surprised him.

"I can tell, darkness sees darkness better than anyone." He supposed that was true, Thanos, Cursed and Malekith had all sensed it from him. However, he hadn't really sensed it from the woman in front of him...was he slipping?

"What makes you think you're dark?" he asked rather than run away like he wanted to. This conversation was quickly getting into dangerous territory and he had a feeling they would only delve deeper.

"Because everything I do goes wrong," she said bitterly looked down at her knees. He knew the feeling after learning of his heritage it seemed like nothing went right for him. He tried to show his father that he was still his son by eliminating the frost giants, he hadn't appreciated it, in fact, he told him so while he was dangling from a precipice. After falling for so long he had finally been saved and all his savior had wanted in return was the tesseract, he had been a bit naive in that whole situation and his mind slightly altered by the scepter he had wielded. Not like those he had wielded it on but in had affected in some way he couldn't really explain to himself much less to others. Then by the time he had gotten back to Asgard the rage had built up and then...he had killed Odin.

He'd had very simple goals. Kill all the Jotuns gain his father love. Made the Midgardian submit and then rule it. Kill Odin rule in his place. All the but the last had failed and the last had barely lasted. It seemed like lately, he couldn't do anything right.

"I understand the feeling," he replied softly but the woman seemed to hear him.

"I believe that of you. I know my mom gets it too but she is just so easily able to shrug after off, like it's nothing, and I can't." she shook her head "I mean sometimes I can but not all the time, it's like the darkness seeps in and then I can't stop thinking about it and then we fight about stuff that I already know that she's right about but knowing that doesn't seem to make it stop. I hate fighting with her. I lived my whole life wishing I knew her but I can't help fighting with her.

"I hardly ever fought with my mother," Loki spoke not knowing why he was telling her anything...except for the fact that she was right darkness knew darkness although their darkness was different than the darkness from before. It had changed somehow since he fallen from grace in Asgard. "However the last words I spoke to her before she died was to tell her that she wasn't my mother," he admitted as he sat down beside her on the ground.

"You were adopted?" Loki nodded, he supposed that was the accurate word.

"Me too, they kicked me out when I started acting up, things only got worse after that."

"When I found out I tried to show my father that I picked him, he didn't pick me," he said just as bitterly as Lily had spoken.

"I thought it was my fault, I just kept making bad decision after bad decision and it's like no matter what I choose it always ended up wrong." Loki nodded, he knew how that felt. It's what led him here to Storybrooke in a very long round about way. Only he really didn't like thinking about any of this, it led to the thoughts he really didn't like thinking about.

"So are you really from?" He blinked and looked at the woman in front of him. This wasn't curiosity, there was a need behind it. A need to know how similar they really were and he found himself feeling the same need inside of him.

"Asgard, at least that's where I grew up. I was born on Jotunheim." If she knew either place she didn't show it.

"I was born in the enchanted forest but grew up here. I always thought I was from here."

"I always thought I was of Asgard until a frost giant touch that should have given me frostbite just turned my skin temporary blue."

"A man on a bus told me, then he told me that he put another person's darkness inside of me."

"Frost giants are monsters." They both spoke rapidly one after the other until this point where they stopped and just looked at each other trying to process what the other said but they only really understood shallowly what the other was saying.

"They lied," Loki spoke. It had hurt so much when he had learned of it. They had never told him that he was a frost giant. "Then he wouldn't accept me even after I tried to show him. All I wanted to show him was that I was still his son."

"The people who adopted, the one who were supposed to be my family through thick and thin kicked me out, it wasn't all my fault but they didn't care."

"I guess we both got pretty messed up families." Loki let out a sharp bark of a laugh, even though he didn't really find it funny.

"My father was the Jotun king, he tried to kill me after I was born because I was a runt. " That had only served as the final nail in the coffin for his plan to destroy the frost giants.

"I've lied, and stole my whole life." It seems like they going onto the sins part of it. Very well. The mortal would likely stop and stare and go away but he was tired of holding this all in. If he had to he would change his face and pretend to be someone else if he couldn't trust her as much as felt he could.

"I tried to kill all the frost giants," she looked up at that but not with the disgust he was expecting.

"I did my first armed robbery before I was 18, I didn't mean to my boyfriend just pulled me into it, but I thought I could use it so me and Emma could go away together, but she abandoned me too, she was the only one I had left. Things got worse after that," he smiled a cheeky smile he didn't feel.

"Don't they always. If you grew up in this world then maybe you'll remember what happened next." he used his magic to change into his armor to what it had been during the invasion.

"Do you remember me?" she frowned and looked like she was thinking hard. He spread his arms and looked at her cockily though he wasn't quite sure why.

"You look familiar." He realized he had forgotten his helmet in a flash of green it was on his head as well. He saw recognition the moment it hit her eyes.

"The invader was always shown in grainy quality," she said quietly like she wasn't sure how to take this information. His grin faltered by her reaction, though he wasn't sure what else he had expected it was the reason he didn't allow himself to be himself in town. He wasn't sure how much they knew but he knew that they likely wouldn't accept it. Did Lily know where he lived? Would he have to move and live in disguise all the time? What in the world made him think that he could trust her with this just because they shared a common root of darkness? There was darkness in him. This was not just a few robberies or assault he wasn't even sure how many he had killed here...at the time he hadn't really cared.

Did he care now?

Part of him did. Somehow the anger had dulled in the past few months when he hadn't been planning revenge or executing it. With its absence, it had made room for...regret? Was it regret? He froze as Lily put her hand on his shoulder.

"I wanted to kill the Charmings for what they did. I did some really bad stuff in my past too. You know what's so good about this place? They give second chances even third or fourth ones. You wanted to kill two people...I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands I'm pretty sure it's not the same thing." She nodded.

"Not it's not, but Regina and Rumplestiltskin they've both killed a lot of people too, Regina is one of them because she chose to put aside her past and unite with them."

"I honestly don't know how to do that," he responded. Revenge had been his motive for so long even if he wasn't currently plotting anything he didn't know how or even if he could put his past behind him...or if anyone would really let him. "Or if I even want to," he continued. Doing something not fueled by revenge wasn't something he had done for a while now and he wasn't sure if that's what he wanted to do. "I don't know how I feel about anything lately,"

"We can try...the both of us, solidarity in numbers," she added with a hint of a smile.

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we try again, or give into darkness," After a long moment of consideration he nodded. He could try something different, at least for a little while.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is going to be a short little story it's going to be short little chapters updated hopefully once a day till it's done.


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